Everyone’s jumped on the Game of Thrones bandwagon these days. It’s a geek’s dream come true because we finally have a serious attempt at transforming a well known fantasy series into a watchable TV show. Most shows end up doing a horrible job like the terrible “Legend of the Seeker” based on the Sword of Truth books. This is a trend. TV shows usually end up mauling the source material. So when geeks see a classy production closely following the Song of Ice and Fire book series, they go overboard praising it. And they’re right to do so. HBO makes awesome shows and it’s clear they’ve done Game of Thrones with a lot of love and respect for the source material.
Unfortunately none of that can make up for the shortcomings of the series itself. Warning: I’m not shy of giving away lots of spoilers, so read this at your own risk and peril. So here’s why the entire story line of Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire) sucks hard.
Good Guys ALWAYS Lose
I keep hearing how this series is a “breath of fresh air” where Martin isn’t afraid to kill off his main characters and that in “real life”, the good guys don’t always win etc etc. This is true. In real life, the bad guys win some and the good guys win some. Except that in Martin’s world, the good guys never win. Character after character bites the dust without gaining a victory. Ned, Robb, Catelyn, Bran…they all get shitty deals. All of them without exception betrayed. Even our darling Arya gets royally screwed.
And the baddies? While some shit happens to them, they’re essentially self goals. Joffrey gets his comeuppance not at the hands of any hero, but from within his own side. Cersei self destructs. Tywin gets it in the gut from his own son. In other words, revenge is tragically missing from the entire Game of Thrones series. All the good guys (and wolves too!) die horrible and humiliating deaths and the bad guys essentially slip down some stairs and break their neck. Like I said in “real life”, both goodies and baddies will have victories. But Martin is just a sadist.
I get the feeling that whenever Martin feels like his plot is losing its way or is in danger of being resolved, he just sits down and thinks “Hmm..this can’t happen. Let’s kill someone!” In other words, he uses the death of his characters as a substitute for plot development and for sheer shock value hoping that others will laud him for being “gritty” and “real”.
No New Engaging Characters
I wouldn’t mind Martin polishing off his characters if he comes up with new ones at the same rate with which they exit the stage. But he doesn’t. Instead, he gives us lame creatures like Davos who no one really cares for. And then he kills him too! So who the hell is left? Brienne?
So while the initial books were riveting for the sole reason that tragedy and betrayal abound, Martin pays the price for his carelessness by not having a plot to carry the story forward. No wonder he took five years to come out with “Dance with Dragons” and openly admitted that he was working on other stuff in the meantime. He didn’t know what to do with the story! He’d killed off or crippled every single person of interest to us on Westeros so what more was left?
Moral of the story: Don’t be so casual with your main characters. We were emotionally invested in them and you chose a single big payoff by disposing of them at the cost of future story lines. Congratulations. You now have colorless remains. I haven’t even bothered to pick up Dance with Dragons because I saw nothing in the previous book to interest me further. My wife started reading it, and gave up halfway. Too boring. Did anyone expect differently? When your main characters are missing it’s like trying to squeeze water out of a rock.
It’s not Real Fantasy
At the most, we can say that the series has a passing acquaintance with magic elements. A couple of dragon scenes and veiled references to “walkers” do not a fantasy make. I initially picked this up because I was told it was one of the best fantasy writings ever. The truth however is that it’s basically fictional history. The fantasy elements are kept down to a minimum or are even non existent. I felt pretty cheated.
So much potential. All wasted by lazy storytelling. The solution to the current hysteria is to have more good fantasy novels converted into TV series with the same attention to detail and production quality that HBO is showing the with Song of Ice and Fire series. Only then will we get a sense of perspective and finally stop mooning over Game of Thrones simply because it’s all we have to look forward to at the moment.
Ditto’s on lazy writing. A few tragic deaths are always in the cards, but i’m done watching the show after the first few seasons. Just too much nonsensical slaughtery intermixed with a few minutes of plot building and sex.
What is most irritating is it could be sooo good. But instead its not.
Bravo! That fat fuck with a neckbeard has everyone convinced his shit is the second coming of Tolkien when it’s tripe that lucked into getting a premium TV show. Shows you that the people at HBO can’t read. I tried to watch his show and I felt like I wasted my time. The infamous “red wedding” episode seemed like a massive ‘audience f u.’
The thing is there’s a reason good fantasy works — things get bad but the good guys in the story triumph. True, it’s not ‘original’ but neither is Game of Tripe.
Maybe if George R.R. Martin wasn’t so busy stuffing his face, he might have another book written and out. But I guess he gotta photocopy something first after he eats and then writes….
sick show. Xena was brilliant compared to this one.
It’s slower moving than “The Sheltering Sky”, punctuated by simulated sex which has absolutely nothing to do with moving the story forward. Talk, talk, talk. New meaningless characters. Talk, talk, talk. What a bore ! What a crock of utter bullshit!!!
The solution to the current hysteria is to have more good fantasy novels converted into TV series with the same attention to detail and production quality that HBO is showing the with Song of Ice and Fire series.
…What an ironic sentence…
Lol little kids like fairy tales. Men just like a good tale.
crying over a characters death is so pathetic. Go read comics if you can’t handle classic writing. I can tell no one hear could read Shakespeare. Must hate Moby Dick also.
Fact is every death has huge meaning in GOT. It just takes some intelligence to see it.
you mouth breathers should have never been allowed bear GOT. what you need is literally any other writer in fantasy.
Why would you complain about the ONE author good enough at his craft to creat a realistic fantasy novel when there are thousands of D&D clones?
go read R.A. Salvotore…I loved him when I was young & ignorant.
Ps.
how can suspense happen when you know good always wins? Intelligent consumers can’t find that thrilling like you marks. Maybe when you mature or find vetter education, you’lldemand more from your enentertainment than “bag guys are bad! Good guys are INVINCIBLE! !!
In reply to youfagsaremorons
For someone claiming to appreciate “good literature”, classic writing and touting their intelligence, here are a few pro-tips:
1. Capitalize letters at the start of a sentence
2. Don’t make spelling mistakes
3. Put a space between all words
Normally I don’t criticize someone’s grammar, but this was too ironic to pass up :P
In reply to youfagsaremorons
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, what a retard. How self-gloating in your own self-proclaimed intelligence can you be. That is just pathetic. And if you then take into account the ridiculous amount of spelling and grammar mistakes it becomes beyond imagination. My 8 year old daughter can spell better than you lol. But that aside you can’t even read properly. You claim things the OP never said, you exaggerate his words just to make your points a bit more impressive, great show of intelligence lol.
In reply to youfagsaremorons
I have no problem with characters dying. I have a problem that the story continues well past it’s end point.
The Red Wedding was the end of the series. The bad guys won, and that would have been a good ending.
In fact, had there been an epilogue set generations after the events of the books which showed how the Lannisters were remembered by history as heroes and the Starks as villains, it would have been a poignant historical commentary. But Martin decided to draw it out long past its expiration date and the story suffered to the point of irrelevance.
TL;DL, Everything after the red wedding was boring and/or contrived.
In reply to UsMoronsAreFagsApparently
That’s actually a very interesting observation!
In reply to bhagwad
This was actually my same exact reaction. While some of the plot was already contrived by the point of the Red Wedding, that ending would have infinitely redeemed the series. It would have been a 1984 ending I would have actually LIKED, an actual meaning to the meaningless deaths.
In reply to youfagsaremorons
Seriously, R.A. Salvotore? All that shows is that you really don’t know the fantasy genre at this point. Nothing wrong with Salvatore, he’s good, but not great. How about the mighty Brandon Sanderson, basically anything he writes, if you are looking for amazing writing where the good guys generally win? Want something gritty and gray where you’re not even sure who the good guys and bad guys are and that doesn’t leave you feeling like reading is a chore like ASOIAF? Try Joe Abercrombie and his amazing “The First Law” series or “The Broken Empire” series by Mark Lawrence.
I’m not even trying to be a jerk to you despite the fact that you deserve it after your comment. I’m very serious and somewhat envious because I assume you are clueless to these amazing books. Read some/all of those and you’ll understand why real fantasy buffs are somewhat annoyed with GRRM’s success with his lackluster series that he can’t even seem to complete. I mean each of the series I’ve mentioned are “stay up all damn night cause you can’t stop reading” good. Enjoy them!
Need more now that you’ve realized what real fantasy can be? Fine fine…read “Kingkiller Chronicle” series by Patrick Rothfuss. Sorry, the good guy seems to be winning at this point, but this man can write!
Thank God I’m not alone. I was actually a fan since the first episode was aired until the second season. I loves the chaos, politics and schemings of some of the best game of thrones player. Lately though, I’ve noticed that show just can’t stand on its own. HBO tried their best but it’s not helping. Daenerys is so boring, they kept adding one dimensional characters (like seriously, ENOUGH already!) The show is still good but it has become pretty basic and plain.
I find it funny how even those who recognize that Martin is an average writer at best do not know enough about fantasy and “fictional History” (which is arguably exactly the same) to see that it is a run of the mill, unoriginal and unimaginative setting and that it copies a by then completely drained theme and style. Breath of fresh air my ass.
May I remember you that Glen Cook had already written TBC in 1984 (the guy Martin ripped the nights watch from)? Which played all the thematic keys typically attributed to GoT. 12 years before Martins bore fest was released.
The truth is that what you get from Martin is a fairly, if not especially, complex plot with a lot of hamfisted “maturity”. Normally I would enjoy the violence and I often do, but it has to have a point (or the point is pointlessness itself). The former often does not materialize and the latter is a very tired concept in literature (even in fantasy). Both of which I could forgive, and even get myself to like, if it was at least a pleasure to read. Which it isn’t.
At its best its a series of fairly entertaining but flawed fictional history novels.
At its worst its a pretentious and pondering mess, clearly pandering to an audience “too mature” for elves and orcs, which derives its notoriety from its equivalent to mindless shock rock qualities, long after it was actually shocking to a reading audience.
One of two things is going to happen in the end:
1: Daenerys is going to swoop in with her dragons and massive army at the critical moment and save Westeros from King Arthas and his army of undead. (which is totally unoriginal)
2: Daenerys is going swoop in at the critical moment but the Lanisters will see her as a greater threat and ignore the real danger leaving a small cadre of POV characters to go on a quest to stop Bergelmir and his army of jötnar (also unoriginal with some likely Dues Ex Magica thrown in there)
In reply to yawn
*are going to happen
If the series ratings were around 6-7,
Then I would say it’s overrated, but a 9.5!!! Really?! That’s just like if cheating and corruption would have a baby together and let that thing rate GOT.. even blindly.
Well, if Trump is running for president and has supporters then why not GOT lol.